Pellegrini to Leave Malaga at Season’s End, Freeing Him for City

Manuel Pellegrini, outgoing head coach of Malaga, took over at Malaga in November 2010 and guided the club to its first top-four finish in La Liga in his first full campaign in charge. Photographer: David Ramos/Getty Images

May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Manuel Pellegrini will leave Malaga
at the end of the season, the Spanish soccer club said, freeing
him up for the vacant manager’s post at Manchester City.

Pellegrini reached an agreement to leave for “sporting
reasons” with two years of his contract remaining, Malaga said
in a statement on its website last night. He coached the team to
the Champions League quarterfinals this season, and it is
currently sixth in La Liga with two games left.

“Everyone has the right and obligation to follow their
chosen path, and Malaga must do the same,” Pellegrini, 59, said
in the statement. “The club requires a realistic project next
season. Malaga had a past without Manuel Pellegrini, and will
also have a future without Manuel Pellegrini.”

Pellegrini, who has coached teams in his native Chile,
Argentina and Spain including Villarreal and Real Madrid, is the
bookmakers’ favorite to become the next manager of Manchester
City, which fired Roberto Mancini on May 13 after the English
Premier League club failed to win a trophy this season.

He could be announced as Mancini’s successor as soon as
next week after agreeing to a contract worth 3.4 million pounds
a year ($5.1 million), the Daily Telegraph reported, without
saying where it got the information.

Pellegrini was linked with the job before Mancini’s firing.
Following Malaga’s scoreless draw against Sevilla on May 12, the
Chilean denied newspaper reports that he had already signed an
agreement with City.

“Nothing has been agreed with any other club,” Pellegrini
said at the time. “I’ve been fortunate enough, and very proud,
that every year the big clubs have shown an interest in me. I
hope in the coming weeks that things will become a little
clearer.”

City Job

Should Pellegrini join City, he would become its third
manager since Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan
bought the team in 2008. City had been a perennial underachiever
in English soccer, even dropping into the third tier in 1998,
before Sheikh Mansour spent about $1 billion to lift the club
from under the shadow of local rival Manchester United.

City ended a 35-year trophy drought by winning the F.A. Cup
in 2011 and secured its first English league title since 1968 on
the final day of last season. The Blues’ Premier League defense
ended with them finishing 11 points behind United as the Red
Devils won a record-extending 20th championship. City also was
last in its Champions League group.

The club said May 13 that it fired Mancini after he failed
to deliver any of its stated targets beyond Champions League
qualification, and after it had identified the need “to develop
a holistic approach to all aspects of football at the club.”

Coaching Career

Pellegrini, a civil engineer, spent his entire playing
career with Santiago-based Universidad de Chile, making 451
appearances for the club and then becoming its coach.

He coached various teams in South America, including
Ecuador’s LDU Quito and Argentina’s River Plate, before taking
his first European job with Villarreal in 2004.

Pellegrini had five seasons at Villarreal, where he twice
guided the “yellow submarine” to top-three finishes in La Liga
and twice reached the Champions League quarterfinals.

He joined Real Madrid in 2009, lasting one season as the
team finished behind champion Barcelona even after accumulating
a then-club record 96 points. The runner-up finish came after
Real spent a record $300 million on players including Cristiano
Ronaldo and Kaka during the offseason.

Pellegrini took over at Malaga in November 2010 and guided
the club to its first top-four finish in La Liga in his first
full campaign in charge. The team reached the last eight of the
Champions League in its tournament debut this season.

“I will be eternally grateful to the owners of the club,
who always had blind faith in me,” said Pellegrini, whose team
hosts Deportivo La Coruna on May 26 before finishing at
Barcelona on June 1.